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Medway family trapped in Gaza for weeks after war broke out crosses safely into Egypt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

A family from Medway that had been trapped in Gaza for weeks when war broke out between Israel and Hamas has safely cross into Egypt, according to a source.A friend of the Okal family told 7NEWS that Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their one-year-old son Yousef, made it through the Rafah Crossing around 5:30 a.m. EST Thursday morning.The family had been visiting relatives when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, leaving them stranded in the area with limited power, food and water.At one point, they had been staying in a single-family house with 40 other people including 10 Americans.“The Okal Family expresses its deepest gratitude to their family and friends around the world, the Medway community, the media for sharing their plight and the plight of the hundreds of other Americans trapped in Gaza, their elected officials who fought hard for their return, and the State Department for providing them with safe departure,” a statement from an attorney representing the ...

Listen to the last new Beatles’ song with John, Paul, George, Ringo and AI tech: ‘Now and Then’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The final Beatles recording is here.Titled “Now and Then,” the almost impossible-to-believe track is four minutes and eight seconds of the first and only original Beatles recording of the 21st century. There’s a countdown, then acoustic guitar strumming and piano bleed into the unmistakable vocal tone of John Lennon in the song’s introduction: “I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if I make it through / It’s all because of you.”More than four decades since Lennon’s murder and two since George Harrison’s death, the very last Beatles song has been released as a double A-side single with “Love Me Do,” the band’s 1962 debut single.“Now and Then” comes from the same batch of unreleased demos written by Lennon in the 1970s, which were given to his former bandmates by Yoko Ono. They used the tape to construct the songs “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love,” released in the mid-1990s. But there were technical limita...

Driver killed in New Bedford after vehicle hits guardrail, goes airborne off Route 140

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

Authorities say the driver of a pickup truck was killed after their vehicle struck a guardrail and went airborne in New Bedford early Thursday morning.Massachusetts State Police said troopers came across the crash around 4:15 a.m. after they were called to Route 140 North at Braley Road.According to a preliminary investigation, authorities believe the driver of a 2006 Ford F150 pickup truck had been traveling near Exit 7 when the vehicle struck a guardrail at a high rate of speed.State police said the vehicle then went airborne and that the driver, who was believed to not have their seatbelt on, was ejected.An MSP spokesperson said the victim was declared dead at the scene, and that the exit off-ramp remained closed until 7 a.m. as emergency crews responded and investigated the crash.No additional details were provided.

Medway family trapped in Gaza manages to escape through border crossing with Egypt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

A Medway family trapped in Gaza for about a month managed to depart the war zone this morning through a border crossing with Egypt, a family attorney said, ending what they have described as a harrowing experience.Attorney Sammy Nabulsi said Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their one-year-old son Yousef Okal, departed Gaza through the Rafah Crossing shortly after 5:30 a.m. local time and are in the process of being transported to Cairo by United States Consular Affairs.“The Okal family is overwhelmed with the love and support they have received from home and abroad, but they are also exhausted, physically and emotionally drained, and have a long journey ahead of them back to the United States,” Nabulsi said in a statement.The family was in Gaza for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents when Hamas stormed into Israel and killed civilians in a terrorist attack that has since triggered an overwhelming military response from Israel, including relentless airstrikes and a ground inva...

Trudeau headed to D.C. for Western Hemisphere trade summit Friday at White House

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to the U.S. capital for a summit meeting to talk about growing trade connections across the Western Hemisphere. Friday’s White House summit, hosted by President Joe Biden, will bring together the leaders of countries taking part in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity. That’s what the Biden administration is calling its hemispheric trade framework, an effort to head off migratory challenges by fostering economic growth and trade in the Americas. The Prime Minister’s Office says leaders will also discuss attracting what it calls “responsible and sustainable investments” to strengthen supply chains. The partnership, known as APEP, comprises 12 countries, including Mexico, Chile, Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic. It’s not clear whether Biden and Trudeau will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one on the margins of the half-day su...

Lightspeed makes relocation easier as LGBTQ+ workers seek safety

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

When a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws swept across the U.S. over the summer, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. employees wasted no time asking the company’s executive ranks to help protect staff.President JD Saint-Martin recalls a June meeting held by the Montreal-based company’s pride group that inspired Lightspeed to consider whether its relocation policy should be amended. By then, 18 U.S. states had passed laws that limit or ban gender-affirming medical care for minors and sexual orientation education in schools. Canada has seen rallies and counter-protests this fall over policy changes about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools as provincial politicians zeroed in on pronoun changes for students under 16. “We’ve always had a relocation policy at Lightspeed, but our relocation policy was driven mostly for business reasons,” Saint-Martin said.“In the context of what’s happening in the trans community and beyond really, we started to think, w...

Rights groups report widespread war crimes across Africa’s Sahel region with communities under siege

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Security forces and armed groups are committing war crimes against civilians in Africa’s Sahel region, where extremists and rebels are increasingly fighting to exert dominance and control resources in communities, according to new reports from two rights groups.Civilians are increasingly being killed, abducted or abused, including in Burkina Faso, where jihadi groups have fought for many years, and Mali, where militants and ethnic rebels are expanding their reach, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.The Amnesty report was released on Thursday, while the HRW one came out on Tuesday.Spread across the vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert, the Sahel region has been a hot spot for violent extremism, with armed groups often taking advantage of little or no government and security presence to target helpless communities.But the conflict has worsened in recent months and analysts blame the trend on the absence of institutional reforms, faile...

Defunding CBC would be ‘devastating’ to news in rural Canada: Catherine Tait

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

OTTAWA — The president of CBC and Radio-Canada defended the public broadcaster and its independence at a House of Commons committee this morning.Catherine Tait was called to testify at the heritage committee, where she faced questions from Conservative MPs about CBC’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict.Tait told MPs in her opening remarks that the CBC is accountable to all Canadians and not to politicians, and that its journalists work independently of corporate management. Liberal MPs asked what would happen if the public broadcaster’s $1.4-billion budget was reduced, with Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre promising to pare down the budget for CBC’s English services while retaining coverage for linguistic minorities. Tait says that defunding the CBC would be devastating to its ability to fulfil its mandate to serve rural Canadians in particular.She also says losing the public broadcaster would be bad for Canadian democracy.This report by The Canadian Press was firs...

Cenovus Energy reports Q3 profit up from year ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

CALGARY — Cenovus Energy Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $1.86 billion, up from $1.61 billion in the same quarter last year.The company says the profit amounted to 97 cents per diluted share, up from 81 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue totalled $14.58 billion, down from $17.47 billion in the same quarter last year.Total upstream production for the quarter amounted to 797,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from 777,900 a year earlier.Total downstream throughput totalled 664,300 barrels per day compared with 533,500 a year ago.Cenovus also announced the appointment of former Shell Canada president and country chair Michael Crothers and former Husky Energy executive James Girgulis to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:CVE)The Canadian Press

Cover crops help the climate and environment but most farmers say no. Many fear losing money

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:12 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Called cover crops, they top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change.Yet after years of incentives and encouragement, Midwest farmers planted cover crops on only about 7% of their land in 2021. That percentage has increased over the years but remains small in part because even as farmers receive extra payments and can see numerous benefits from cover crops, they remain wary. Many worry the practice will hurt their bottom line — and a study last year indicates they could be right.Researchers who used satellite data to examine over 90,000 fields in six Corn Belt states found cover crops can reduce yields of cash crops — the bushels per acre. The smaller the yield, the less money farmers make.“I don’t want to abandon it, but as far as just going whole-hog with planting cover crops, that’s a tough thing for me to do,” said Illinois farmer Doug Downs, who plants cover crops only on a sliver of ...